China’s foreign trade fell 8.3% year-on-year in July

The yuan-denominated value of trade between China and the rest of the world fell 8.3% year-on-year in July, according to official data published today by the General Administration of Customs of the Asian country.

In the seventh month of 2023, exchanges with other countries totaled about 3.46 trillion yuan (US$482,070 million, about 438,778 million euros at the exchange rate).

Specifically, exports fell by 9.2% compared to the same month of the previous year, standing at around 2.02 trillion yuan (US$280,010 million, 255,863 million euros).

For their part, imports did the same by 6.9% to some 1.44 trillion yuan (US$200,049 million, 182,797 million euros).

Thus, the Chinese trade surplus closed July at around 575,700 million yuan (US$79,962 million, 72,793 million euros), a reduction of 15.7% compared to that registered a year ago.

In the accumulated between January and July, trade between China and the rest of the world resisted by increasing 0.4%, with exports growing 1.5% and imports falling 1.1% compared to the same period of 2022.

China: exports also fell in dollars

Customs also presented foreign trade data denominated in dollars today, used as a reference by international analysts and which usually present divergences from those disclosed in the Chinese currency due to fluctuations in exchange rates.

In the US currency, trade between China and the rest of the world contracted 13.6% year-on-year in July, with exports falling more (-14.5%) than imports (-12.4%).

The figures are worse than those expected by analysts, who predicted a drop of 12.5% ​​in the case of sales abroad and 5% in the case of purchases of foreign goods.

In the overall of the first seven months of the year, trade denominated in dollars reflects a global decrease of 6.1%, although in this accumulated data it is imports that experience a greater decrease (-7.6%) than exports (-5%).